Fundy Fringe Roundtable

A roundtable discussion featuring Fundy Fringe artists Franny McCabe-Bennett (actor/playwright of Bar Star), Elliot Delage (actor/playwright of 25), and Mark Foster (playwright of The Waiting Gentlewoman).

Franny McCabe-Bennett
www.frannymcb.com
Twitter: @Franny_McB

Elliot Delage
elliotdelage.artfolio.com
Twitter: @elliotdelage

Mark Foster
tabootheatre.wordpress.com
Twitter: @tabootheatre

Transcript

Welcome to episode 143 of Stageworthy, and this is the Fundy Fringe Roundup. So I’m here with a nice roundtable of fringe artists, and we will start on my left, and go around, and everybody introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your show. Sure, this is Franny McCabe-Bennett, and my show here this year is called Bar Star.

It’s a solo, storytelling, interactive-y type show set in a bar, and it’s drinking stories, and some songs, it’s a wake to say goodbye to my drunk self. As a sober person three and a half years later, I’m kicking her off for good. That’s my show.

I’m Elliot DeLage, and I wrote, directed, and I’m acting in the show 25, which I’ve been touring all summer. I’m on my sixth Fringe Festival, going on seventh with Halifax, and it’s pretty much a bunch of characters who are at their crossroads in life. It’s an experimental format, it’s my first time writing, and I’m having a lot of fun discovering the whole fringe world with that.

Hi, I’m Mark Foster. I am the playwright of The Waiting Gentlewoman, which is at the Interaction Concert Hall. I’m playwright-in-residence with Taboo Theatre, the company that’s putting the show on, and Waiting Gentlewoman is about Percy and May, two 20-something actors who have gotten married far too young and are having some relationship troubles backstage of a show where they are playing Shakespearean lovers.

Do you say this is episode 143? Yeah. What are you doing for your three-year anniversary? I don’t know yet. Okay.

I mean, the anniversary is in January, and I don’t know if I’m going to just be there or wait until I get to 200. Okay. So it’s hard to say.

So we’re all at different… You’ve been to the Fundie Fringe before Framing. Elliot, you have not. Mark, is this your first time? First time at Fundie Fringe, yeah.

And Elliot, you’re the only person here who’s on their sixth Fringe Festival. Is that right, yeah? I have to ask you, how are you feeling? You okay? Good, good. I was a bit confused when, yeah, you sent me a message to say that we were doing this today, and I said, oh no, I’m not in Halifax.

I’m just like… I think that sums it up pretty much. I don’t know where I am right now. I was going to say, my entire Fundie Fringe experience has been watching Elliot put his hands on his head.

Just when he’s talking to someone, being like, this isn’t Halifax, I’m not in Halifax. Okay. Okay, so we have… I mean, where did you… Which Fringe did you start? Montreal, yeah.

June 8th, we premiered 25 in Montreal. That is a long slog. I mean, I remember doing a fourth Fringe tour, and by the time that was done, I was pretty much toast.

How are you keeping your energy up, keeping things going? Oh, well, this show is really fun, because we can adapt it to the space we’re in. So for example, we just came from Charlottetown, and it was actually in an alternative space, which happened to be a church. Which was so cool.

So, and it’s different audiences, different energies in each Fringe, and honestly, it’s not hard to keep going. It’s hard to keep track of where I am, but to keep going and to keep the energy up, honestly, it’s not that hard, because you’re always surrounded by people, and you’re always coming into a new Fringe that has new energy, new shows. So, and we go see as many shows as possible, and that also keeps us going, because it’s like constant inspiration and stuff as well.

Nice. Goodness, Frankie, this is your second year at the Fundie Fringe. Is there anything you note that’s different this year than last year? And I mean, your show is different.

Your show, you’re working with a different format. So talk about that. Sure, I love the Fundie Fringe.

I’ve done a bunch of different fests, not all in a row, but over the years, I’ve done a couple of different cities, and this is my favourite festival. It’s just so lovely, and it’s full of the kindest, nicest people, and everyone is working their butts off, and I really genuinely am thrilled. I was thrilled when I got into the lottery again this year.

Between last year and this year, the shows are, I was about to say totally different, but then they’re not super different. They’re both autobiographical shows, but this is the first time that I’ve had more of like a stand-up feel to it, and there’s interaction. I have snacks, I’m giving the audience pre-show, and we play games throughout where people read stuff out, and I had no idea how that would work.

I’d never done it before, but it seemed like a really good way to try it out. I’m also at a venue that’s like an off-site venue at the Five and Dime, which is a bar uptown, and they’ve been great. They’ve been lovely, and working in that space has been really interesting.

I didn’t know how doing a show about being sober and have hosting awake, like I have memorial photos, like it’s as close to awake as I could possibly make it. I didn’t know what it would feel like to do that in an actual bar where I’m watching people drinking all my favourite drinks, you know, every time a glass of wine goes down, I’m like, ugh, so I didn’t know what that would be like, but it’s actually been a really positive, supportive space and experience, and the audiences have, after every show, people come up and share stories either about themselves. I get a lot of fun drinking stories from people.

They’re like, oh my god, when you told that story about falling down, I also fell down, blah, blah, blah, all these different things, and I also get some heavier stories of people who lost someone or are dealing with their own drinking. I’ve had a few people who are there who are non-drinkers and have come up to me very quietly afterwards, said something like, I’m just glad I’m not alone, and I’m glad to hear this story, and so it’s been a really rewarding experience. An interesting thing about not drinking, and I don’t know if you have this, when people find out that you don’t drink, they’re like, oh my god, why? How do you have fun? That happens to me a lot more when I first, because I’ve stopped drinking twice, and the first time I stopped, I was in my 20s, and now everyone was like, what? Like, how are you gonna live your life? How are you gonna survive? My friends are supportive, but they did not understand it all, and I had one friend that was just like, that’s stupid, here’s a shot.

I just believe that that’s dumb. And yeah, it was always that there had to be a reason, so people were like, oh, are you on antibiotics? Or did you get too drunk yesterday, and you can’t drink today? The default setting is always, of course everyone would drink and wanna drink. When I stopped drinking the second time around, when it stuck, I’m in my early 30s now, and I stopped in my late 20s, and that was less of a thing for people.

There were more people who were, you know, I’m a woman, and a lot of people are pregnant in my age group right now, so it was, all of a sudden, I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t drinking, or people just had really early mornings. In your late 20s, unless you’re still an actor, which I am, but most of my friends have normal day jobs, and we didn’t have house parties till 5 a.m. anymore, because everyone was just too tired. It just didn’t make sense.

So now when people find out I don’t drink, they’re like, oh, you just, it’s not for you, or you just, you don’t like it, you’re not interested. I’m like, no, no, no, I love it. That’s why I can’t do it anymore, because I adore it.

No, no, thank you. Thank you so much. No, thank you.

Mm-hmm. Clark. In terms of The Waiting Gentleman, this is not the first performance of it.

No, it’s not. Before we get to that, Franny, you and I have the same watch. Oh my god! Watch bros! I saw that, and I was like, why is Franny wearing my watch? I’m also an accomplished pickpocket.

Yeah. No, it’s not. So The Waiting Gentleman is actually probably one of the first scripts I ever wrote.

There’s a little festival in Halifax at one of my old universities, because I went to King’s slash Dalhousie, just like every King’s student. When you say King’s, everyone’s like, what’s that? And I’m like, it’s a square that hangs off the end of Dalhousie. And they have a theatre festival, and it’s called the King’s Infringement Festival.

It’s sort of their own little fringe, but it happens in January. Um, so I wrote The Waiting Gentlewoman three years ago, I think, maybe? Um, and put it up with a few friends of mine. Um, and weirdly enough, I was so used to that point, I put like, put like four short plays on it.

I was so used to people just coming up and being like, it was great in that way that very succinctly tells you it was not great. And then this one, people were actually like, oh, we like this one. And I was like, thanks guys.

So yeah, it happened then. And then Lara read it and really liked it when I came on to Taboo Theatre. So I punched it up a little bit, and we put it on in December, a little space called The Living Room that I think might just be like a pile of lumber by this point.

Every theatre space in Halifax is like two days away from being bulldozed. Oh no! Yeah, we’ll be like, oh, we could put a show on there. And someone’s like, oh no, that place, that place is a trash heap now.

That almost happened with my band. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I heard that.

They were not gonna be able to use it. Which venue was it? The Opoah Hall Theatre. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they somehow managed to get back in there. Yeah, it’s the same thing with the one that my new play, Harbor Town at Halifax brings. It’s just one building over in the waiting room.

And we’ve put two shows, like this is show number two that’s going on there now. And when our first show was going on there, we were like, maybe we’re not gonna have a venue by the time it comes around. We’ll get there and the doors will be padlocked.

Yeah, so it went up in December as part of a double bail. And generally, people enjoyed it. It was great to work.

Our three actors, Bruce, Sam, and Jesse were so awesome to work with. It was a lot of fun. So Lara just applied into the Fundy Fringe Festival.

And then when we got in, she sent us a message being like, hey, guess where you guys are going. So it was great. Because I think that if I had a say in it, I would have like chickened out of the festival.

So yeah, it was nice to be like, okay, cool. I guess I’m going to St. John. Yeah, so this is now the third time that the play has happened.

Hopefully it will continue to happen. Yeah, it’s good to see it again. Are there things that you’re learning about it each time it gets performed? Yes.

So we have a bit of a fun story on how this play came to be. Because if you see it two different nights, you’ll notice that the play is quite different every night it goes up. We had one rehearsal for this before we came here.

We had a whole bunch of rehearsals in December when the show was going up, not here. And then Sam went off to do Festival Antigonish. And we hired another actor who dropped it very last minute.

So Sam got a frantic phone call late at night from Mara saying, hey, I know you get back on Saturday, but how would you feel about on Monday going on tour? And Sam, bless his little soul, said yes. So we did six hours of rehearsal, like 6 p.m. till about midnight on that day. And then packed up the car and came here.

So we were doing our final line runs in the car on the way to Fundie Fringe. And every night, it’s just kind of been like, if something comes up, Sam, Bruce, and Jesse are all pretty great with ad-libbing on stage. And so I still get surprised.

It’s behind, yeah, we’ve had like four or five shows now. And the writer’s sitting in the audience like, hot diggity, that’s a cool thing that just happened. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

So generally, how has the Fundie Fringe been for you guys this year? How do you feel about your audiences? How do you feel about numbers? We’ve been really well-received. We’re really happy with that. Yeah, we got, yeah, lots of people, I think when you start, we started in Charlottetown, and I know a lot of people from Charlottetown were telling people from St. John to come and everything.

So we had quite a bit of, yeah, buzz from that. But yeah, no, I’ve been really, really happy with the run here, really happy. So do you think the buzz follows you from city to city for the most part? Uh, it does when you can get it.

But yeah, beyond the bigger fringes, it’s quite a bit harder when you’re a new show to get that kind of buzz. I think the second time around, third time, it gets, people know your name, and just more and more people will come. But when you go to the smaller fringes, it’s easier to meet everyone, see all the shows, and get that kind of thing.

But yeah, it does kind of follow you around, it tends to, especially when you put it all over the flyers. Yeah. Yeah, I’m just.

Yeah. Yeah, throw it in one. Exactly.

How has the Fringe been for you? Uh, good. Again, like being a return person is so much what Elliot was just saying. It helps.

It helps. My show last year was, luckily for me, very well received. So when I got in, that was basically why I submitted.

Because I thought, I think if I get in, I’ll have people curious to see what the next show will be. So I applied with an idea of this nugget of this show, and got in, and then was like, okay, guess this is what I’m going to be doing. And yeah, it’s been great.

Like, the audiences in St. John are so lovely and so supportive. And I’ve had some, like a lot of familiar faces in the crowd that saw the show last year. And it’s been great.

And the location that I’m in is, there’s a lot of restaurants and a lot of places nearby. So people are, and I flyered like crazy this year. So people are just kind of like, what, what is this? And popping in, which is lovely.

And yeah, it’s great. I mean, there’s always some growing pains with a new venue. So just ironing those little things out.

But I mean, it’s all par for the course when you’re doing a Fringe. Yeah. Are you still like tweaking the script as you go through it? Oh, 100%.

What script? Like I have, oh yeah, absolutely. I realized as I was doing the show on the first night, because I wrote it in modules, basically, in chunks. So I have these different sections.

And I had all my sections. And then some of the sections were just, tell this story, talk about this time in my life or whatever. So as I was going through on opening night, I realized, oh, this is probably closer to like 80 or 90 minutes.

This is a ton of material. But because it’s in chunks, I was like, okay, I’ll skip that. And I’ll just skip that.

And so I’m able to kind of pick and choose. So actually, I was expecting there to be some differences every night, because I’ll tell the stories a little bit differently every time. But I have been playing with, okay, tonight instead of like, I’m going to swap this out for that and see how that flows.

And like last night’s show was much more of a narrative, for example. And yeah, so it’s been really interesting to play with that and to have the freedom. And especially because it’s a solo show and it’s my own writing.

If I make a change, I’m like, well, I know why I did that. So that’s okay. Yeah.

Yeah. I’m always ready to make a change. Because, you know, I could make a change.

But I also have somebody in the booth who’s like, I don’t have many cues, but I don’t want to fuck this up. Yes. Mark, how’s the funding for you guys? It’s been great.

I was going to say last night when I was at Barstar with Lara, we were watching you and we talked to you after and you said, oh yeah, it’s 90 minutes. We brought it down to 60. And Lara was like, I remember at one point, Franny looked at her tablet and just scrolled.

Which is funny because like, there’s this sort of thing where like, sometimes I’ll see a one person show and it will be 90 minutes long and I’ll walk out being like, that was great, but it could have been 60. And I was like, Franny, write my philosophy. It was like it was tailored for me.

Yeah, Fundie Fringe has been great. I am a theatre artist by like tertiary trade. I work multiple other jobs on top of playwriting.

So for this week, I like, I have like 135 unread emails on my phone. Like people are texting me. I’m getting Facebook messages.

I’m like, no, I’m not looking at any of it until Sunday. This is vacation week. Like, yeah, so when, I mean like when Halifax Fringe comes around, it’s my third year doing the Halifax Fringe.

I like don’t get to go see shows because I’m also working. Like I’m also putting my own show on. More often than not, like I’m ferrying people around.

I have the old Honda Civic. It is Taboo Theater’s greatest asset. So I maybe get to go see like two or three shows.

And it’s usually just my close friends that are putting stuff on and I’ve told them I’m going to go see it. Whereas here, I’ve been seeing like two, sometimes three shows a day just because I’m in the city and I’ve decided I’m not doing my homework. Yeah, so it’s been awesome.

It’s been super inspiring. I’ve got to meet like so many cool people. And I do have that sort of like Grinchy vibe when I’m in Halifax Fringe and people are like, oh yeah, I’m going to binge the Fringe.

We’re going to meet all these people. I’m like, oh, I bet it’s not that fun. And then I came here and I was like, no, it really is.

And my heart grew three sizes this Fringe. I’m actually, I mean, I love my venue. It’s the largest stage I’ve put this show on ever.

There’s a huge space in there. But it’s also a church. Like it’s pretty cool.

It’s sort of a church. It’s like a cool venue for your show. It’s so wide.

And I walked in and I was like, I looked at the concert hall. I was like, that stage is okay. Well, that’s this one.

So it’s been like, it’s like how, like trying to move in more than I ever have just to fill the space. It’s great, but I was not expecting such a wide stage. But it’s been a great Fringe so far.

I really enjoyed it. Everybody’s got like one more performance today. I have two today.

Oh, you have two today? Because you’ve got three o’clock and then seven o’clock. Yeah, I requested a space that I could use as a sober space in case people wanted to see the show but didn’t want to be in the bar. So the Fringe very kindly made an accommodation and kind of snuck me into the Sanctuary Theatre, this giant stage you’re talking about.

When I was watching your show, I was like, hmm, how is he doing his show? Were you like, how do I fit my little show on this? I did, but I also thought, I think I’m just going to stand. I’m just, I’m not going to do too much. I mean, you generally don’t move much.

I don’t really, yeah. So I just have to find the best sight line for that, I think. And then just park it.

There we go. Yeah. So a strange thing happened to me yesterday before my, like three hours before my show.

I had opening night jitters again for like no reason at all. Anybody have that happen to them during like a run? Like, you know, there’s one thing when you open the show and it makes sense, but all of a sudden for like no reason right before some random show, you have that? It just comes up. Yeah.

Franny? Yeah, I have anxiety. It comes and goes. And so, yeah, it’ll just show up.

I’m like, oh, cool. Hey, so I’ve been dealing with that this week. And sometimes like the trigger for it is really clear.

And sometimes it’s just, I’m like, oh, cool. I just feel horrible. That’s great.

Okay, no problem. But at this point, luckily, thank goodness, I’ve been doing this long enough that I can do a show and I can get through it and I can recognize it. It was a lot harder for me when I would spend time also trying to figure it out and be like, but why am I feeling like this? What if I do throw up on stage? I was like, you know what, just whatever.

I’m just gonna be on stage and figure it out. And like last night’s show, I was buzzing like crazy and I made it through and it seemed to go fine. But yeah, it comes and goes for sure.

Yeah, not uncommon for me. When I tell myself, I get really bad anxiety too. And as the writer, it’s weird just sitting in the seats because I’m just sort of like watching this thing happen.

And I’m like, oh, I don’t even have any agency in what’s going on. But I always tell myself, I’m like, well, these suckers aren’t getting their money back. It’s too late for you.

Yeah, I was like, there could be a fire. That’s what I’ll think today. Yeah, yeah.

No, but it’s been, I mean, my coping mechanism also as a playwright to say it surreptitiously is what I like to call now the October fog, get a little bit of that. And then, you know, just go sit in the back row, take up three seats, just chill out. I mean, after like seven fringes, six fringes so far.

So far. Are you, when you’re opening, do you even have, are you nervous at all? Or did you have those jitters? Or did you find them coming? No, definitely at the beginning, because it was the first time the writing was ever being performed for anyone. And I didn’t know anyone in Montreal.

So it was literally just, there it is. So definitely at the beginning, there was that. Now, I think it really helps to be also two people.

I don’t like, I have so much respect for you guys, you solo artists who are like, I’m going to talk this out with someone. Oh, like myself, myself. Like that’s, yeah, awesome.

So we have each other with Anastasia Wells, who’s my co-star, where we managed to talk those kinds of things. And they’d come, like there’s different things that come different, different things. But yeah, now it has calmed down a little bit.

But you always have to question things as well. You can’t, the danger with doing so many French festivals is getting like into a routine. You have to find new things.

A routine is good in a certain way, but then you have to renew and refine things. Otherwise it just is going to become stale and you’re just going to become, it’s going to become mechanical. So yeah.

I also found like when I was doing a French tour that there’s the temptation when you go into a new Fringe, so you’re like, it’s just like the old one. No doubt. That’s why that is.

Every Fringe is so different. Well, actually I was doing, I’m doing like all of the organization and all the like paperwork and all that too. So I quickly learned that each Fringe is not the same, even from like administrative point of views.

So the stars actually, Anastasia, stars, she didn’t see as much of that. So she was arriving at the Fringe festivals and I was like, oh, at this, I’m like, no, this one’s completely different. This is a completely different thing.

And yeah, you have to really come in, like it’s a new place and we were getting really quite good at that and just accepting and adapting. That’s the key to doing a tour, I would say. Because if you’re trying to make it like it was somewhere else, it’s just like literally sticking, I don’t know what the expression is, like the square peg into the round hole.

Is that it? Yes, I know. The round peg into a square hole. I think it is.

Is it? I don’t know. It’s pegs and holes. There’s a peg in a hole.

I think everyone gets the image. That I’m trying to convey. Yeah, okay.

Can I ask, I have a question for you. Okay. And this is a bit of a, might be seen as slagging Toronto Fringe, but we did that quite effectively on the second Toronto Fringe round up where we shit all over them justifiably.

Okay. How was Toronto Fringe to you? Toronto Fringe to us, well, I mean, there’s a really good vibe to that fringe. We enjoyed it.

It was our third fringe, so we were still like growing into the whole fringe thing. There’s definitely, it’s definitely different when it’s a huge festival. Because you, I don’t know, I was thinking kind of the whole point of the fringes for each artist to have equal chances, right? Because you’re drawn.

So, which is much easier to do and you kind of compare it almost, well, political views and stuff like that because you have like that famous, famous image where you have the fish and the monkey and the giraffe and the elephant who are each told that they can climb the ladder, right? So, they’re each having the same opportunity, but they’re each very different people. So, for a newer company arriving into that fringe with people who know it all, even just choosing the theatre for me was, it was complicated because I chose a theatre that looked nice on the images and stuff, but I didn’t know that it was not at all central and that a central location, central close to the hub and stuff. No, no, no.

I was at Robert Gill with Jason, yeah. It’s a beautiful venue and once people get there, they love it. The only thing is it’s up an elevator, it’s in the back of a thing and it’s like, it’s not rate besides.

It is the only rating area that’s air conditioned. That’s true. Actually, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that was big because it was hot, hot, hot. The only reason why I ask is, is Toronto Fringe is notoriously not kind to touring artists. Yes, it’s very tough on them.

It’s very tough to break in as a touring artist because Toronto looks in on itself and as a touring artist, I was curious if you found audiences. I think they’ve kind of heard that because there was an event, there wasn’t a huge turnout to this event, but they did an international event where some patrons came and some people came and they tried to make that happen. I think they’re aware of it and they’re making, they’re trying to push towards it, but for sure different because yeah, some of the local companies don’t need the extra push.

That’s what we’ve noticed. Others do, of course, of course, of course, of course. So there’s no, you can’t say, you can’t say that because there’s just so many factors to all of this and so I’m not bitter in any kind of way and there’s just so many shows, but yeah, for sure, some fringe festivals will definitely push, push, push the internet or the out of town people because they know that they have zero following or zero people especially, but I mean, I don’t know.

I just, I just let it go. Yeah, I tend to be trying to be positive about all the experiences and we did honestly have a positive experience at the Toronto Fringe, like it was generally a very positive experience. So we’ve all had a chance to see some shows and I’m curious of the shows that you’ve seen and I always want to talk about things that you really love.

So are there shows that you saw at the Fundy Fringe that you really loved? Keeping in mind that this goes up today and so when people hear it, they still have the opportunity to see one of those shows. Yeah. So what did you guys, what did you guys love? Well, they’re sitting beside me.

Yeah, and you’re sitting across from me. So I was like, oh, sick, like Elliot’s here. I was like, I’m gonna shut that show.

They’re afraid to shut up. And I was like, oh, what’s up? I know. It’s great.

My imposter syndrome is just like, oh no, you’re on the panel with the two of them. Yeah. We also loved your fail, your fail show last night.

Yeah, your show last night, I was talking to Phil a bit, his Stuart McClain, God character was just great. Yeah, I really liked Elliot’s show. I think it was one of the first ones we saw because we saw your preview and we were like, oh, cool.

Also a dramatic two-hander. Yeah, we’ll do a little exchange there. And then I saw your show, Franny, and I was telling you after last night, I am also a reformed drunk.

So I was like, that will definitely be a resonant experience with me. And yeah, those two shows, I mean, they blew me away. It was super cool.

Definitely your two of the, if not the two top shows, then two of the top shows. Elliot, when I heard yesterday this was the first thing that you wrote, that blew my mind. Yeah, yeah.

Because it does not feel, it does not feel like, and I think Laura was saying this yesterday, it does not feel like a first time. Thank you. I’m seeing your, you have a late show tonight.

Okay, great. So everyone come with me. Yeah, and come with me to go see Bar Socks.

I haven’t seen you yet. One of the two, I’m definitely gonna be able to make it. Oh, thank you so much.

I have to be honest, I haven’t seen a lot. Having my venue a little bit to the side, there’s no one else to come early for or to stay late for to watch. So that was always my secret method to seeing shows.

I would start with my venue and then work my way out. And for this show, it is an emotional show. It’s a comedy, but it definitely hits some hard places for me.

And even the funny stories, every story that I tell them, that I love telling it and I’m celebrating it. The reason I’m telling you is because it’s never gonna happen again. So that makes me sad.

So I haven’t been seeing as much this year as I did last year. And I was able to catch your show, Phil, which I really enjoyed. It was really well done and interesting.

And again, I was admiring your staging. I was genuinely like, I know what he’s doing and he’s doing it well. But yeah, I haven’t seen, I think that’s the only show I’ve seen.

And then I’m gonna see your show tonight. And that’s all I could really manage. Am I finding the one downside to the late start that we have? I mean, I understand the difference in small frames.

You can’t do a new show. Yeah, no one’s gonna come to a matinee on a regular show. I’m starting at like 4.30, 5 o’clock.

I have a small window before each of my shows because I take about an hour and a half before my show for myself. So I’m not seeing the show within that window. So that means that I have a smaller window in order to see shows.

So I have found that a little bit, a little bit difficult, but there’s no way around it. Actually, for our premiere here, we had just seen your show. I think I had to come out of your show about 10 minutes later.

I had to be on. I just like came and saw it and then I came out. So you were definitely, something was with me on stage.

Like it was very like, it was like, there’s some scenes in there that were just like, it was, they just were like. Yeah, our show as well. We’ve definitely had the thing where we’ve been at a show, been like, oh geez, like we’re going to have to literally run to make our tech time right now.

But it’s also good because I mean like if for our tech, we have lights up, lights down and one fight call that we just run like 35 times before each show. And that’s it. But yeah, it’s weird with St. John being a small city that you can traverse on foot pretty quickly.

We still managed to like be late for tons of stuff. I blame the hills. I have been talking about these hills all week because Toronto is flat country and every year on my Google maps, I have to add myself an extra two or three minutes for hill time.

So I am not acclimated. I’m finally getting close to it now. I was almost on time for this by two minutes.

We were talking about, I forget who it was, but there was a touring company that came to Halifax a few years ago, also a notoriously inclined city. They had, I think they might’ve had to cancel the show because they all got shin splints from walking uphill. Oh my God! And like, honestly, I’m feeling that between like all the walking on hills and like sleeping on like a saggy futon mattress.

Yesterday we were, one of us was like, so is anyone else just like really sore all the time during this festival? We were like splayed out on a hardwood floor. I’ve been trying to find as many, like, okay, so I know I have to go up a hill, but where is the shortest incline? Yeah. So, you know, we’ve seen, we’ve seen some shows.

We’ve talked about the fringe itself. Are there interesting things about your own shows? Let me talk a little bit about things that you’ve learned. Have you guys generally learned things during the course of the fringe about your show? Oh yeah.

For sure. If I hadn’t, I’d be really disappointed. To me, that’s more important than breaking even or anything like that.

Cause that’s what, that’s what this first time writing experience, first time like creating a show from literally scratch. You have to learn and take in things from the entire thing. And I think people are asking if the show is different or if it’s changing things.

And I think every show, slight little things are tweaked so that if we went back and saw our premiere in Montreal to when we see our last show in Halifax, it’s going to be like, the difference is going to be humongous. And we should have filmed them both. Honestly, that’s my big regret.

But yeah, so learning so many things, obviously the administrative sides, all the publicists, all of that stuff to learning, but artistically learning so much. Did you find the promotional side of the challenge? Cause that’s not something that artists normally find themselves having. I’d have to say that’s the biggest, that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned.

Cause that’s where I was really starting from zero, zero cause I had no background in that. Now I have a brother who studied marketing and stuff. So I was trying to get hints from him too, but he’s also, he doesn’t know the fringe process and stuff.

So we were kind of learning together, but yeah, now I’ve definitely learned a lot about, about that as well. That was the biggest thing I’ve learned, I think. Mark, how are you with the promotion? Promotion? Bad.

No, I’m still, honestly, I’m still working on figuring out how to pitch my plays in a way that doesn’t sound like it’s going to give you like a depressive episode. Cause I write like kind of dark shit. But yeah, so in terms of promotion, I mean like Taboo Theatre, we do have a hard time selling our plays because they aren’t not feel good plays, but it’s definitely not like laugh and clap, like really easy going stuff.

I’m like a student of literature and philosophy. So like, I love, like you were talking about yesterday, like Russian and French writers and stuff who are notoriously unhappy folk. And so in terms of promotion, like really, we just tell people we’re like, you need to come and see the show.

I’m not going to be able to give you like that two sentence pitch that’s going to get you hooked. Like it’s a whole experience. So like we put out our posters, we put up our venues.

I mean, like I think so much of attendance is just not even star power, but just like connections. Like knowing lots of people. We came here and for the first few nights, last night we actually had a really good house.

It was quite nice. But for the first few nights, it was like much older folks. And we make like very young people theatre and like quiet houses.

The interaction concert hall is like dead quiet. You can hear a pin drop in there. And so we were like, Oh God, like we need to get people in here who are going to tell people to come.

And then finally last night, we sort of had a crowd come in, which is nice. But then, I mean, like, like when we go and do a show in Halifax, it’s like most of my shows have larger casts than the Waiting Gentlewoman. So Harbor Town coming up has like six actors in it or five actors in it.

Um, I don’t even know. Characters are my show. And so it’s sort of that thing where it’s like, you know, those five people plus the crew are going to know like X amount of people in Halifax who will then be brought out to the show, who will then share our event on Facebook and pass it along to people.

So when we were coming here, it wasn’t like a shock to be like, Oh, the first night we played to like a house of seven people because we have no fringe momentum. We don’t know anyone here, but also at the same time, I mean, like promotion’s awesome. Making money is awesome.

But we came here to put a play on. So we promoted it. But like at the end of the day, we’re, you know, just a bunch of kids messing around on a stage.

Fran, did you find that, um, that having done smashes last year, that there was a lot more familiarity with you? Absolutely. I had that experience last year where my first night was eight people. My second night was 10 people.

And I had 20 and then I had like 40 and 50 on my closing shows, which was amazing. And I was thrilled. And can we just say, bless those eight who take the risk to come out to that? Yes, come out to that show.

And when it comes out to a first, like your first performance in a fringe, they are the blessed. They are the kindest, sweetest souls on earth and the volunteers as well. They choose to use their volunteer hours to come and see your show.

Like, and just the ones that are working, that are in the venue, that are catching your show. Like the, thank God for volunteers. Fringes wouldn’t, anywhere wouldn’t happen without them.

But so I had that experience last year of starting really small and then, you know, luckily, thankfully grew. And this year, my opening night was 20 or 25. And I was like, this is like 25 in St. John for now 10 artists.

Like this is like Toronto 1000. I was thrilled. I was absolutely thrilled.

And yeah, I did find that. And that was probably my most helpful promotion thing was just being able to say that Smashes was here last year. And I’ve had some quotes from reviews from like grid city magazine that people here know.

Like I could say like, you know, a bunch of people in Toronto think this, but they’re like, who Mooney on what? Like if they don’t have the reference, it’s not as helpful. So having some little quotes and last year my show won the performance choice award, which was lovely. And so being able to say that, even just if people were like, I have no idea what that is.

I don’t know how that works. I don’t think, I don’t even know if that means anything, but award you say, that’s a really helpful one. I do think that sometimes people seem like the Laurel.

Oh, Laurel. That’s it. Laurel’s like crazy.

I was thinking, I was thinking of doing one and just saying, we have not yet won an award. And then putting like, and then putting like, we are going to get five stars or like something like just writing tiny letters and then put the five stars. Like really good.

Oh my God, you absolutely should. There was a Toronto Fringe show. I really think that’s a good idea.

There’s a Toronto Fringe show a couple of years ago that was a real love or hate show. And audiences liked it because it was very weird. Every single reviewer hated it, trashed it.

But like, this is literal garbage. Like the worst, some of the meanest reviews I’ve ever read. And they kept getting one star, one star, one star to the point where it became outrageous.

It was a comedy show and it was all comedians in it. And they just thought it was the funniest thing. So they made new posters with all the horrible quotes and started selling out.

And they had one, they had five stars at the top and it would have one star, Toronto star, one star, whatever. So each review was giving one star, but when you looked at it, it was five stars. And then they sold out the end of their run.

It was hilarious. That’s great. One of the most brilliant tactics because there was a, years ago, there was a show for Edinburgh Fringe and they were paying.

We got one star from everybody. And so on all their posters, they just said, the Edinburgh Times Journal says a star. Yeah.

You pull out the one, like shocking. Oh yeah. You learn how to pull the stuff out of the reviews.

Yeah. Turn it around. Yes.

That’s still a challenge for me. Like finding like, what do I pull out of this review? Cause it’s a good review, but what’s the sense of it overall? Which is intricate, which can be a challenge. So one more performance.

Yes. And then everybody goes out of here. Fran, do you go back to Toronto? I do.

I’m done. I haven’t been fringing, but I was just on a six week summer contract doing regional theatre. Literally closed that show, drove home, unpacked, repacked, flew out the night, and now I’m here.

So I am really looking forward to just being in my own bed and sleeping. It’s going to be good. And then you’re off.

You guys are both, we’re all off to Halifax. We’re all off to Halifax. Good.

Now I feel left out. We got a seat in the Civic. Oh yeah.

I just bought my bike. Yeah. Yeah.

So I mean, you guys, I mean, you guys are tired, but still like you’re now seeing the end in sight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think we’re going to be really, really like missing something when it’s over.

We’re both going to get, Stars is going back to London to finally move to London because I’ve just been dragging her around. She’s like, tried to move there right before. And then I’m like, nope, you’re going to come and rehearse with me in the South of France.

And then nope, we’re going to go to Canada. You ran over that real quick, but South of France. Sorry.

Yeah, I’m from, yeah, I’m from Paris. I’m based out of Paris. My parents actually have a house in South that has space to rehearse in because it’s an issue everywhere in Paris.

It’s very, very hard to find any kind of rehearsal space in my little studio could only last so long. Can I ask if you’re doing your show in Paris? I’d like to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But there’s no like, no concrete like plans yet, but definitely looking into it. For sure. Yeah, I guess tomorrow we’re packing, packing up and heading back to Halifax.

Sam and Jesse are allowed to go free. Bruce continues to stage manage the show that’s going up at Halifax Fringe. So she’s going to switch out of the spotlight.

I am going back to my day job. And then after that, I’m going back to school. So I don’t know how much of Fringe I’m going to get to see at Halifax, but at least I’ll get to know that I’ve relaxed for a week.

And yes, I would very much like to sleep in my own bed. I am six foot six. There is no bed made for me other than the one that is in the room of my house.

I have been sleeping curled up on an air mattress with one of my actors. And I’m sure that Sam and Bruce and Lara and all the people I’ve been sharing beds with will be happy to not deal with me and all the limbs I have. One question that actually kind of occurred to me was, was you guys have been from June.

It’ll be September by the time you’re done. Like working together. Yeah.

Over that period of time, how do you guys keep the peace? How do you guys keep not killing each other? Oh yeah, exactly. How do you not kill each other? We’re just brutally honest with each other all the time. And that stops you from death.

It really does. Because if you’re, it’s when things are not being said that things bubble up and explode. So that’s what we’ve been saying to everyone.

And then obviously there’s better moments and worse moments. But like, no, it’s actually been really, really good. And when we need our space, we know that each of us needs our space and we respect that.

We get to know each other really well. And so, yeah, no, it’s, it’s worked really well. Trust and respect and being brutally honest.

Is the agreement to be brutally honest when you discuss there’s something that’s just the way that you are? Well, I’m probably more naturally like that. But Stars is, yeah, Stars is pretty honest as well. And she’s learned that she has to be with me as well.

She’s just like, nope, no, stop. Nope. I’m like, okay.

And then we just bicker it out. And then it doesn’t become a big thing. And we don’t take it personally.

We just like know that. Yeah, no, yeah. Well, I’m going to, I want to thank you guys for sitting down and talking with me today.

Make sure today that if you’re listening to this, did you go and see Bar Star? Go see 25. Go see the waiting gentleman. And if you have some time, see the commander.

Definitely. Yes, definitely. Thanks a lot, guys.

This has been a Homebody Productions production.